There is no question Pennsylvania's Equal Pay Act, adopted in 1959, needs to be updated and strengthened, or that we lag far behind the national average in achieving equal pay. Without simple corrective policies to close gaps in current equal pay law, Pennsylvania women will not earn equal pay until the year 2072, at the earliest.

Unfortunately, a bill that's been touted by its supporters as a corrective policy, is a fake equal pay bill that not only fails to strengthen equal pay protections in Pennsylvania, but also strips away some hard-won protections already in place.

The legislation (SB241) co-sponsored by Sen. Thomas J. McGarrigle, R-Chester, and Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, fails to close several of the loopholes in current law that need to be closed.

Most importantly, McGarrigle's bill does not reverse the 1967 amendment that severely reduced the number of Pennsylvanians to whom the Act originally applied.

Pennsylvanians would be surprised to learn that current law applies to so few workers that the types of employees can be itemized on a half-sheet of paper.

The types of employees covered by the law include farm labor on small farms, employment in public amusements, and even "seamen on foreign vessels." What good is a law if it hardly applies to anyone?

McGarrigle's bill also fails to close the "factor other than sex" loophole that allows employers to rely on factors other than sex regardless of whether they are job-related or sex-based.

Though both McGarrigle and Corman have expressed the hope that their wives and daughters would be judged by their merits, talents and experience in the workplace, their bill would continue to allow employers to rely instead on prior pay and market forces, both of which perpetuate historic gender pay discrimination.

Instead of meaningful amendments, McGarrigle drafted his legislation to add another employer defense that allows employers to determine wages based on the level or amount of education, training, or experience.

These factors are not sex-based and adding them to the law will have zero impact on the pay gap. Further, the bill does not protect employees against retaliation for sharing wage information.

The so-called pay transparency protection in the bill only protects employee wage inquiries, discussions, and disclosures if they are "reasonable." Who determines what is reasonable? How is an employee to know whether their inquiry or disclosure will be deemed unreasonable, and therefore potentially lose her job? Protection from retaliation must be unconditional.

Employees should not have to risk losing employment in order to try to stop discrimination.

McGarrigle's bill does not fix the pay-secrecy problem that keeps women from knowing if their employer is discriminating against them.

It is almost 60 years since Pennsylvania adopted its Equal Pay Act. After initial years of a narrowing wage gap, progress has stalled.

Women's wages as compared to men's have not improved in a statistically significant amount in the last decade. Pennsylvania women are paid 79 percent of the median annual wages made by men working full time, year round.

The wage gap is even worse for women of color: African American women and Latinas typically make only 68 percent and 56 percent, respectively, of the wages white, non-Hispanic men typically make for full-time, year-round work.

The gap persists regardless of education, occupation, and industry, with men earning more than women even in predominantly female occupations. Every year, Pennsylvania women are deprived an average of $10,507 due to unequal pay.

For the approximately 40 percent of women who are primary breadwinners, this pay gap deprives them of an equal opportunity to provide life-sustaining necessities to their families.

Pennsylvania women deserve to be treated equally in the workplace. It is time to pass legislation that will actually close the loopholes in our ineffective state equal pay law.